⚠️ Content Warnings ⤴
Info
Content Warnings
- Language
- Implied and alluded to sexual content
- Themes of toxic codependency and trauma
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Alexis and Spec continued to traverse the vaporwave desert for weeks on end. With buildings as scarce as they were, the two took shifts sleeping within the pocket dimension inside Spec's Worn Sack. Spec, being prepared for almost anything, had stashed a cot in there around a year ago. Still, sleeping was suboptimal— one of them had to perpetually hold the backpack open, less the inhabitant succumb to hypoxia.
It's currently Spec's turn to keep watch. He's passing the time by writing again, keeping the bag open with his knees.
February 14
Jesus christ, this sucks. That's it. That's today's entry. My local watch says we're in the middle of fucking JULY, and yet just over a month has passed on the outside. I'm going insane. All I've seen for the past week has been purple sand. Alexis isn't BAD company per se, but he can be… how do I put this. Dense.
Sure, it's filthy rich coming from ME, but I swear, it's almost like he's trying to piss me off. Every day there's some new thing to give me grief over, which is kind of fucking incredible, considering WE ARE STRANDED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT. HOW DOES HE KEEP COMING UP WITH NEW MATERIAL. I want to punch him, but I'd also miss the bickering… are friends always this confusing? Probably not. I suppose if I spent a month with Tom or Evie in this situation, I'd probably want to kill them too.
Spec sighs, closing his notebook. The monotony of it all was suffocating. No wonder so many people went mad in this place, let alone succumbed to the tune-out for those trapped in 201. Alexis and Spec had both seen the numerous Static Ghosts wandering through the sands— occasionally in the abandoned buildings they'd stay at. It was a grim reminder of the overbearing pressure to stay grounded in this sedative paradise. It truly seemed no one was above giving in— Spec even had to snap Alexis out of it two or three times.
"That's probably why the M.E.G. base is abandoned…" Spec thinks to himself. "I feel like this place would definitely be a tourist hotspot if it weren't for the subtle dangers…"
"Now I know what Odysseus must have felt like dragging his crew away from the Lotus-eaters… wait a minute, if we think the Backrooms mimics human perception, and these myths… ancient times… wait a second—"
Spec immediately goes back for his pencil and paper, quickly jotting something down. "I've got to get this to Blanche and see what she thinks— maybe even Castellos too. They'll be able to tell me if I'm just imagining things…"
Spec is about halfway finished with his 'theorycrafting' when suddenly his watch begins to beep— his shift was over.
"…Oop! Agh, thank fuck— I was just about dying of boredom." Spec quickly turns around and yells into the anomalous backpack.
"ALEXISSSSSS!! ITS TIME TO GET MOVING AGAIN!!" Spec's ears are greeted with the creaking of rusty springs— and he takes that for his answer.
"I'll give him five minutes to get out here. Otherwise I'm turning this thing upside down." Spec mutters to himself, before turning his attention back to the unfinished thought in his notebook.
As the minutes tick by, Spec grows increasingly more irritated. First five minutes pass— then six. He's half ready to open the bag and scream again, when he hears Alexis crawl out of the opening behind him.
"There you are— punctual as ever. Yknow, I'd be willing to wager that if we added up all your wasted time by the end of this, we'd have over two da—"
Spec's voice cuts off as he looks up at Alexis. He's acting like he can't hear him at all— he's just staring off into the distance.
"Alexis. Hey. Earth to shithead. What's with the mannequin impression?" Spec asks as he slips his worn sack back onto his back. "If you want to be edgy and brooding, you lost any ability to be convincing weeks ag— oh fuck."
Spec mentally kicks himself for not noticing sooner. Waves of static ripple across Alexis's body, almost completely covering him in a thin layer of black and white; the VHS effect.
"Fuck fuck fuck… how long has he been like this? I thought he was sleeping in there—" Spec says aloud, before snapping his fingers in front of Alexis's face to try and snap him out of the trance.
"HEY. ALEXIS. WAKE UP, STUPID."
Spec slaps him in the face with his left hand a few times, but Alexis's head barely moves. He was practically a statue at this point.
"ALEXIS. DON'T MAKE ME… GOD DAMN IT!"
Despite Spec's best efforts, Alexis begins walking away— the static quickly enveloping him with each step.
"No. NO NO NO NO. Are you kidding me right now? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Of course this stupid asshole would start feeling nostalgic before going to sleep— IDIOT!"
"Shit… nothing's working. NOTHING'S WORKING. Come on dumbass, THINK. HOW THE HELL DO YOU WAKE SOMEONE UP FROM A TRANCE?? I don't have a bucket of water to throw on him— screaming didn't work, slapping didn't work…"
"…"
"I am NOT about to princess-and-the-frog a bitch for this. FUCK!"
"If he dies, it'll have been my fault. If I can't save him, isn't that the same as killing him myself?"
"AW, SCREW IT. WHAT THE HELL— IT'S BEEN MONTHS SINCE WE'VE GOTTEN HERE. I'VE KNOWN ALEXIS LONG ENOUGH HE WON'T GET PISSED ABOUT THIS— HE'LL UNDERSTAND."
Spec sprints after his friend— grabbing him by the shirt collar and forcing him close.
"Ok Alexis. I've never done this to anyone before, so if you don't WAKE UP THIS INSTANT, I SWEAR…"
No response.
Spec takes a deep breath, and wraps his other arm around Alexis's midsection, before noclipping both of them around 1 kilometer into the sky.
"HOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHIT"
Spec looks into the unresolving static covering Alexis's face as the two hover in the dark purple sky.
"I don't know if you can hear me right now Alexis, but I apologize in advance—"
Spec lets go— dropping Alexis towards the desert below, before blinking himself back down to the ground.
"Ok… focus— it's just like catching a soccer ball…" Spec says to himself, as he raises a hand towards the tiny person-shaped dot that is rapidly growing in size.
"…Except I'm terrible at sports. Wow, thanks for the reassurance, me. Great pep talk. It's not like if you miss, you'll have ACTUALLY just killed one of your friends."
Spec's eyes glow a faint shade of red, as his contacts begin detecting a rising presence of unstable energy. Alexis continues falling to the ground— he's probably only three seconds away from making contact.
"Come on…"
"Hey, if this works, maybe Backrooms Robotics will finally have been useful for once!"
Just a few feet before Alexis crashes into the sand, Spec closes his open palm into a fist, abruptly stopping Alexis's descent only a few feet from the ground, to which his glasses fall off his face and he promptly throws up.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, SPEC?" Alexis screams.
"YOU WERE ABOUT TO TURN INTO A STATIC GHOST, ASSHOLE!" Spec replies, flicking his wrist to the side, dropping Alexis on his face. Alexis lies face-down for a few seconds, before groaning and standing up.
"Could you have done… I don't know, anything else?"
"I tried man. I screamed at you, slapped you in the face a few times—"
"Gee, thanks."
"—which I REALLY enjoyed by the way…"
"HEY!"
The two stare at each other for a minute— continuing their bickering in silence, before Spec sighs, giving Alexis a hug.
"I'm just glad you're ok. Please don't do that ever again."
Alexis jumps back in surprise— Spec wasn't the kind of person to just hug people. "What was that for?"
Spec throws up his hands in defense. "Sorry— I just thought it was appropriate… yknow, friends… life and death experience…"
Alexis gives him a thin smile. "Don't worry about it. I just didn't expect it from YOU, that's all. 'Suppose I can finally let you off the hook for dragging me into this nightmare… now that you've sAvEd mY lIfE anD AlL."
Spec rolls his eyes at his tone. "Ok, man. Sure."
Alexis's expression suddenly turns serious. "Spec? How… how did you get me up there in the first place?"
Spec cocks his head to the side in confusion. "I noclipped us. Why?"
"And we're both here in one piece. Which begs the question, why haven't you clipped us out of this level yet?"
Spec pauses. "Shit… why haven't I? I mean— if I'd have tried earlier, I could have caused serious damage— if it went wrong." His face grows a little pink as the excuses rush through his head. Unfortunately, there was no way to beat around the bush: he simply never thought it'd work.
"Spec, is there something you want to tell me?" Alexis asks, crossing his arms.
Spec sighs in response, looking at the ground and closing his eyes.
"No. I just didn't think you'd be able to stay in one piece if I tried that. I mean, the only reason you didn't go splat when we got here was because you had an entire city block to shield your fall. I don't even know if I could DO that again, at least intentionally. This level isn't something you can naturally noclip out of— I'd have to brute force an opening, and even I still don't know all the possibilities of doing that with another person. Whenever I couldn't break the static on your face, I figured you were dead either way, so… I just gave it a shot and hoped for the best."
Alexis clicks his tongue chidingly.
"Maybe we should have just risked it with the fish."
"Are you crazy? 'Oh, I just survived certain death, so let me go COMPLAIN about it and suggest something even MORE dangerous.' That's what you sound like right now."
Alexis smiles and rolls his eyes, putting his hands into his pockets as he starts walking again. "Fair enough. Hey, now that you know we can clip safely in short distances, that cuts a lot of time off of our trip, doesn't it?"
